The Tour of Doctor Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque

The Tour of Doctor Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque

Social satire

The Tour of Doctor Syntax follows a fictional schoolmaster’s adventures in search of the “picturesque.” A retired schoolmaster, Doctor Syntax stumbles upon outlandish situations and finds himself in humorous predicaments. Rowlandsons’s Doctor Syntax Meditating on the Tomb Stones portrays the doctor with his tourist’s sketchbook, seeking artistic inspiration at the grave yard of a country church, where he finds grave diggers at work and children playing atop the tombstones while their mother prays at one in the background. The somber mood of the scene is lifted by the Doctor’s conversation with the gravedigger, who explains that he is happy to dig the grave belonging to a wicked lawyer named “Thrust.”

William Combe (1742–1823) and Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)

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R. Ackermann, London

1812

Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15

Printed book on paper; illustrated with hand-colored etchings

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